Jupiter

**By Rebecca Bonilla**
 * Jupiter**

**Have you ever wondered what it is like to discover something very important, but then you loose hope because nobody believes you? This actually happened to a scientist named Galileo Galilei. with the battle he had with the church he thought his discoveries were going to be impossible! But one of the very first things he discovered by looking through his telescope was that there was another planet out in space, a massive planet named Jupiter.**

**DISCOVERY!** **In 1609 The scientist named Galileo Galilei used his first telescope and discovered the amazing planet, Jupiter. Galileo got his first telescope at a fair and added more glass lenses to get a better view of the stars. Galileo went farther than this, he could see the craters of the moons and Jupiter a planet that we couldn’t be able to see from far. Do to these discoveries, Galilei was to be in his house at all times. Since He could not leave his house, all that kept him entertained was his telescope and his notebook, where he wrote down every discovery he made. Galileo Galilei also discovered Jupiter’s 4 largest moons. Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede! These 4 moons have satellites that guard them named the Galilean satellites. Jupiter has more than 4 moons, however these moons are the most brightest, that’s why Galileo spotted them first. Later on NASA made even more discoveries about jupiter's moons they sent satellites to explore and see the planet up close. They found out that Jupiter is a gas giant. Mostly made of hydrogen and helium! And some of it's moons especially europa are beginning to look like a new baby earth. Soon we will have more discoveries and know more about the planet Jupiter, and its amazing mysteries!**

**AMAZING FACTS!** **A.** **In the year of 2022 the planet Jupiter will come close to earth near the month of September!The last time Jupiter got really close to our planet was in the 1960's. In 2010 it did get close but not as close as it did in the 1960's! it would be really cool to travel all the way to Jupiter and see what its like. I hope that in 2022 it gets real close so we can be able to travel all the way to it.Scientist are also trying to find life on Jupiter’s moons. It has so many moons that there could be life starting to form! Especially in the moon Europa named after a roman goddess. Scientist at NASA are working 24/7 trying to find new things and discovering life. IM pretty sure theres life out there too. They just made a discovery about Jupiter about 2 years ago, that’s cool, I hope we can discover more!Did u know that NASA has a mission? Nasa will send a spacecraft named Juno Polar Orbiter, to study how Jupiter was formed and became the dynamic world we see today! Juno will also find other elements besides gas. juno will be sent out in 2011 or 2012, it might even bring back pictures of Jupiter's moons!**

**MOONS!!!!** **Jupiter has 63 moons! The 4 largest moons are Io, Europa Gynamede and Callisto! They are the brightest moons too! Jupiter is a planet, but did you know that jupiter might even be next to a planet that he created! The moon europa, has been having storms of acid and it looks like its starting to form the same way earth is starting to form! NASA is keeping a very close eye to it.** **These moons were discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Not all moons were discovered by Galileo Galilei, later on NASA sent out a Galilean satellite. The Galilean satellite was named after the scientist Galileo Galilei, the man that found Jupiter. The Galilean satellites found other moons around jupiter and it discovered a bit of information about every moon it found. Many people did not believe Galileo's words but Galileo Galilei** **passed away, and about a hundred years later his words were right.**

**FEATURES** **Jupiter is the largest, most massive planet in our solar system! It may be mostly hydrogen and helium but it also has 1% water, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. One gassy planet! He is a pretty big "fella." Our planet earth fits into jupiter about 15 times! Maybe even more. This planet is super massive and since its so BIG! It created life on earth possible. Many years ago before any life roamed the earth, A meteorite bigger than earth broke into 20 pieces and crash into Jupiter, and back then Jupiter was right next to us! If Jupiter hadn't been next to us we would have been hit and no life would have formed.** **Jupiter is mostly hydrogen and helium. This planet is full of gas! If you try to land a ship on him, he will suck it right in! Jupiter does not have a solid surface. Jupiter has a storm going on right now, its the big red dot that you see on the side of the planet! This storm goes up to 400 miles per hour! And its not the only storm, there are many other little storms around Jupiter, but the big red dot which is a big red storm eats up the little storms and gets more dangerous.** **Jupiter is really hot, and it creates convection currents that switch up the clouds. Jupiter's clouds are gas clouds, so these clouds come in many different colors! The spacecraft voyager found out that Jupiter has rings! gas rings, they are invisible but with voyager we could see that they were there. Maybe we have rings to, there are various interesting facts out there that we haven't been able to find out yet, so many questions not answered and possibly not so long.**

**REFERENCES** **Websites: http://solarsystem.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?object=Jupiter&display=overview**

**http://science.discovery.com/videos/jupiter. NASA.gov or Jupiter4U@lonelyworlds.com**

**http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.docontent**

**http://sciencechannel.com/spaceschool**

**Books: Jupiter/ Elaine Landau.** **Landau, Elaine** **New York : Children's Press, c2008.** **48 p. : ill. ; 22 cm** **ISBN: 13: 978 - 0 - 537 - 12559-5** **ISBN: 10: 0 - 531 - 12559 - 9**

**The Solar System/ edited by Giovanni Caprara ; [translated by S.M Harris].Galilei** **Toronto : firefly books 2003.** **255 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 20 cm.**